Yet another red light signal incident

[YOLO]

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local ... 93411.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Looks to be purely operator error. It says that a 8 car train entered a pocket in automatic mode which is not allowed.

[DiscoveryAnalysis]

This occurred during single track operations and leads to several questions:

> Silver Spring has both front crossovers & rear pocket track, why were trains not crossed over via the front crossover and save the pocket for turning any bunched Silver Spring trains.

> When a pocket is used for reversing I can understand the precise need for manual but running the pocket to single track shouldn't pose any issue in ATO

> If the trains was single tracking why was the signal <B08/26> lunar for a move to 3 while the far signal <B08/44> Red?

> There's a derail device "linked" to 44 signal - If that signal was red shouldn't the derail be armed? And if so why was there no derailment.

> I've never in 20+ years seen a instance where ATO blew past a Red signal (except 1996 Shady Grove incident)

[farecard]

The passengers on the train had to be offloaded, and the train operator was taken off the job immediately. The train operator could also be terminated.

Passengers on board while in the pocket track????

> Silver Spring has both front crossovers & rear pocket track, why were trains not crossed over via the front crossover and save the pocket for turning any bunched Silver Spring trains.

I recall being told that was not preferred because it can back up Track 1 while it takes place....